This is how popular media are objectifying men, but no one cares!

Recently, what should have been a good time surfing the internet and looking for news became a few minutes of bitterness for us as the team stumbled upon an article published on a popular web portal. Out of a desperate attempt to grab eyeballs, they shared photos of ‘that’ part of a few Bollywood actors. To much of our horror, the readers are supposed to ‘guess’ who the celebrity is! Looks like the cut-throat competition in digital media got on the nerves of our beloved fellow writer.

Let us admit that we expected outrages. And why would we not? We often get our hands on articles that emphasise how women are objectified in Bollywood and by the popular media. There’s no disagreeing to that. A woman is a complete being, with her senses, morals, intelligence and other attributes. An incomplete representation which highlights only her physical assets and treats her as no better than a commodity is highly condemnable. But when will we start judging men the same way? With the equal amount of respect and dignity?

For once, let us imagine a similar article on the actresses and not actors. What if it showed you a few cleavages and asked you to ‘guess’ who the concerned woman is? Feminists would take the internet by storm and the concerned publication would be slammed like anything by many who would take offence with an article of such bad taste.

Just like humour should carry certain decency too and ‘guessing’ a person’s name by looking at their private parts doesn’t seem a funny game at all, objectification is no less serious when it targets men. What is more weird than a popular publication indulging in weirder tactics to grab readers’ attention? Why are the progressive minds who protested against Salman Khans ‘rape remark’ or James Bond’s kissing scene being censored, silent now?

You, the urban reader, would argue that the number of instances that stereotype or objectify women is a few thousand times more than what men go through. You, my dear, are wrong. Ever noticed where the popular idea of a ‘good-looking man’ has arrived, thanks to parts of Bollywood? Just like a woman with enviable body assets and no extra pounds is an object of sheer desire, a man with a hairless body and chiseled abs is who apparently fits every (?) woman’s fantasy.

As we grow more vocal demanding equal social rights and respect for women, we (un)intentionally mute our voices when it comes to being louder about what the other gender deserves. As we are exposed to a global cultural convergence every day, instead of perceptions being broadened, stereotypes tend to take over us more firmly every day.

Say NO to objectification. Towards men, towards women, towards you, towards us.

P.S. Don’t kill us if you get who were we talking about. We like to be wiser and less ‘cool’. *winks*